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Topic Review (Newest First)

09-03-2006 12:16 PM

D3Smartie

On friday we were unable to get outside to Swiftsure and chase the cohos so we spent the day in close and caught some rockfish, black bass and lingcod. About 6 in the evening it calmed down enough for us to start running back in. We started to troll some gear along the rips and quickly hit a nice King and a bunch of blackmouth. In the last hour of light we probably got 10-15 blackmouth up to 16pounds off the downriggers.
Saturday we were able to do what we hoped, and run out to Swiftsure. The weather was a little choppy in the AM but laid down nicely and it was not a bad day at all weather wise. Coho were thick out at Swiftsure. All the way from the east end down south about 4 miles. Almost in any direction you could see bait, birds and coho on the surface. I used my Xi2 690 and man was that ever fun. I got taken into the backing several times by big cohos. Our biggest for the day was a 16pound hatchery fish. Tons of cookie cutter 8-10 pound fish out there but we did see an occasional bigger one.
A great day on the water and i can't wait to get back out there. It was Neah Bay like it is supposed to be.

08-31-2006 09:30 PM

beau purvis

put a fork

Just ouy of curiosity[I am unlikely to haul my boat out there this year].I fished Neah a lot in my younger years.I Dont know where Makah Bay is.I only caught Chinnies at Spike Rock,Father&Son,Skagway,Mushroom,Wadah,Garabage Dump,and one summer only , we smoked em all summer offf Shi Shi feeding on candies.Silvers were at the Praire,Whistler.Swiftsure.And ,once in a wile[when we could not find em]we went all the way to white rock in a rental alum boat with a 15 evenrude!What a spectactular place!!Especially when there were fish!!Thank you Wa state fisheries management!!!Beau

08-31-2006 10:44 AM

D3Smartie

he did run way out there. hopefully we get the same conditions he did.

08-29-2006 12:03 PM

NZ Trout Bum

We were there on Friday as well and unless your pal made it out to Swiftsure, I don't know where he found them. We fished 3 days and with the exception of the staging kings in the bay, didn't see a salmon. Did land a 25/30 pound Ling that wouldn't let go of a rock fish. Should have seen the clown act as we tried to fasion a gaff as we don't carry one or a net. Got her though. Killed her in the heat of the moment and shouldn't have done that. Big female. Fish and game guy said that he is still seeing females with eggs. I thought they all spawned in April/May. This one didn't have eggs but still should have released.

Will be back on station this weekend. Maybe the rain will bring them in. Hope springs eternal. TB

08-28-2006 06:53 PM

D3Smartie

my friend had a great day on friday... I am headed up on thursday night.

08-24-2006 12:30 AM

riverrun

Tony:

Obviously fishing gear and fly are a different game. Success with gear is a loing way from catching slashing coho on a slider or popper. Nonetheless, I find yesterday's reports of gear caught fish encouraging. At a minimum, they confirm the fish are still out there and that they are getting big. I also received new reports today from the same group of fish hitting on the surface before they could get their gear down. These fish were in at Duntze Rock which makes me hopeful that fish are moving in. Again my friend reported large native fish up to 16 pounds. Accurate weight, I don't know, but the gist is they are getting large.

In any event, my last trip out we couldn't even catch a fish bucktailing! I am happy to start there to get the skunk out. We all know we don't drive to NB to bucktail, but if you can't find the fish bucktailing, its unlikely to get them on top casting.

I for one intend to keep the faith.

RR

08-23-2006 09:44 PM

SalmoGairdneri

Gear limits don't necessarily equal good flyfishing opportunities...

Quote:

Originally Posted by riverrun

Got two favorable and very reliable reports about conditions in Neah Bay today. First received reports of birds, bait and silvers at the "J" Buoy this morning. Limits of "keeper"silvers for 5 people in two boats in less than 4 hours caught on gear from 20-70 feet down. ....

I'm not looking to put a damper on the fun here, but if you are looking to flyfish (as in cast flies to fish), you have to be a little cautious about these favorable gear reports. 2 weeks ago we were out there, fished hard, hooked a dozen or so fat silvers each day (bucktailing) but didn't hook a single fish casting. To us, fishing was crazy slow. I've been hearing the isolated "hot" reports of silvers all summer - and last year too. When flyfishing is decent at Neah, gear dudes get limits in minutes.

If you were fishing gear and/or just trying to bonk a limit in a hurry, then you would say we had awesome fishing because we released bonkable fish.

If you were looking for concentrations of fish that allowed you to cast flies (not gearfishing/bucktailing), then fishing was dead.

Anyway, we saw lots of bait and birds but we saw no cases of silvers pushing bait to the surface. We saw a couple cases of silvers sipping krill.

Just my $0.02

-Tony

08-23-2006 08:03 AM

juro

I just got a fare alert that r/t from local airport = $238 (Travelocity)

DING

I just could be the guy crashing over the cubicles...

08-23-2006 01:41 AM

riverrun

Got two favorable and very reliable reports about conditions in Neah Bay today. First received reports of birds, bait and silvers at the "J" Buoy this morning. Limits of "keeper"silvers for 5 people in two boats in less than 4 hours caught on gear from 20-70 feet down. Reported that one native silver topped 16 pounds and that the smallest silver was in the neighborhood of 10 pounds. Reports were it was extremely rough today. Sounds like they may be late, but they are getting fat.

Also heard of hoards of agressive bighter kings taken in Makah Bay caught mooching in less than 20 feet of water. I know my 10 weight Hypersink can fish that depth with no problem. Kings are fun too!

I intend to try both of these fisheries this weekend. Even if the fishing is bad, Makah Days' fireworks are worth the whole trip. And then there is the bass, too.

Anybody other than NZ TB (aka Bass Master) going to give it another try?

08-21-2006 03:56 PM

NZ Trout Bum

Tough

Really a tough year. Tried again for 2.5 days with out success. I haven't seen a salmon jump, follow or crash a bait ball. Lots of bait balls when you can see them through the fog. Little stuff though, 1.5 inches long. Did talk to some down rigger guys who fished aroung Tatoosh and got 3 coho at 60 to 70 feet. Baby bait in them as well.

A guy on the radio called this month "Foggust". Pretty accurate. Lots of wind as well. Tried to go to Swiftsure two days but caution took over and retreated. My main fishing partner is a highly respected fly tyer and steelhead fisherman and I would be big trouble with his wife if I drowned him!

The rock fish saved the trip again. Nice size and decent numbers. Did get two small lings to the boat and had one take a rock and break me off. Harry had one toast him as well.

The whaler is still on the dock and the trailer is at the Cape so dispite all the doom and gloom, we will be back out next weekend.

I remain the "Bass Master".

08-21-2006 07:31 AM

juro

I see Al Seda has retired to Hawaii in 2002.

I thought Al Seda was a great guy, and his daughters were gorgeous, fished harder than most of the men on board, and wore hoochie earings. My kind of gals (sorry had to mention) but I am only talking from the perspective of an annual angler customer. He gave us good info and breaks here and there, however I don't know what their polictics were with other businesses in the area.

Sounds like the new owners have some real social rough edges in the local business community (?)

08-21-2006 03:29 AM

topwater

big salmon's reports are a joke. remember this is a business where no one that works there fishes. they are desperate for business when fishing is slow and if one person tells them about a large pod of krill eating coho out at swiftsure... you get the report on their website.

plus, telling people to run 10 miles out through some of the roughest water at neah bay to find coho is just stupid... but par for the course for big salmon.

with the damage big salmon has done to the neah bay sportfishing community prior to the change in ownership, they deserve the poor fishing... but the great people such as gordy at the cape and the people who truly love the fishing at neah bay deserve much better fishing... and businesses that support them. big salmon is bad for sportfishing... whether it's kicking people out of moorage spots for not buying their water gas or threatening to kick the charters out of the marina unless we gave them 10% of our gross.

btw, i have issues with big salmon

chris

08-20-2006 09:02 AM

juro

Central has been pretty hot... maybe they are blowing right by?

Also are they closing it end August still?

08-19-2006 07:30 PM

SalmoGairdneri

I too look forward to NZTB's report. According to the Big Salmon web page update on 10 August you can "walk on the backs of the silvers out at swiftsure"! We didn't exactly see that when we were there during that time. Unfortunately, my trips out there are probably done for the year...

Check out the Coho creel counts over at Clallam bay (for some reason they don't include the counts at Big Salmon?).

We are going to try the Posession bar area tomorrow and see what's happening locally.

-t

08-18-2006 11:18 PM

riverrun

Salmo:

Don't give up yet. During the past week, according to the commercial boats, many things have changed in the ocean. I believe things are just late this year up and down the whole coastfor all species Let's see what happens after our first good rain, too. NZ TB is there this weekend and I look forward to his report.

Cheers.

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